VCU COACH SMITH EVALUATING HIS BASKETBALL FUTURE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 2, 1993                   TAG: 9303020022
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
VCU COACH SMITH EVALUATING HIS BASKETBALL FUTURE
In November, Virginia Commonwealth basketball coach Sonny Smith said he would quit if VCU didn't have a winning season.
The Rams have taken care of that - they're 18-7 with two games left - but Smith still isn't guaranteeing he will be back. He will return if he's physically healthy, he said, adding that various viruses have gotten him down recently.
"Whether I'll be coaching next year, that's something to be decided when I sit down and talk with the athletic director and the president," Smith said Monday on the Metro Conference coaches' conference call. "If they feel real good and I feel really good at the end of the year, there's a good possibility I'll do it again. But nothing is set right now.
"The health thing is what I'm talking about. I'm starting to feel a little better now. I want to be feeling right from a physical standpoint. Mentally, I'm OK."
Asked if his gut feeling is that he'll return, the 56-year-old said: "Yes, I would if [athletic director] Dick Sander and [VCU president] Dr. [Eugene] Trani feel that way, and neither one has indicated they don't."
In Blacksburg resides one of Smith's good friends, Virginia Tech coach Bill Foster, who says Smith is thinking seriously about retiring after 24 years in coaching, including five at Tech as an assistant from 1971-76.
Smith, in his fourth year at VCU, has his first winning team there, and all but one key player returns.
"The one thing he has said that lets you know he's serious is being smart enough to know when to get out," Foster said. "At this time of year, if you polled the 300 Division I coaches, 200 of them would talk to you about doing something else. The best thing to do, if you have a choice, is to wait until two weeks after [the season's over]. You'll make a whole lot more rational decision then."
\ NOTABLE FRESHMEN: Some coaches mentioned Virginia Tech's Shawn Smith as a candidate for league freshman of the year. Smith's production has tailed off since a 13-game stretch in which he averaged 13 points and 6.5 rebounds.
"Everybody got to expecting that," Foster said, adding that all of his freshmen have played in spurts.
They probably will be playing more, though, as the season ends.
"The next three games may be like exhibition games," Foster said. "We need to do whatever's best for next year."
\ WOOF, WOOF: The men's rules committee identified verbal taunting by players as a point of emphasis for this season, and technical fouls have resulted on a few occasions in the Metro. It happened to Tech's Jay Purcell after a dunk at Southern Mississippi this year.
Last Saturday, UNC Charlotte freshman Bobby Kummer and South Florida freshman Chris Coleman yapped at each other so much that when Kummer brushed by Coleman as a timeout was called, Kummer got a technical when - says UNCC coach Jeff Mullins, in front of whom the incident occurred - Kummer pumped his fist and yelled, `Yeah!' "
Mullins, however, likes the rule, as does Foster.
"There's enough to do out there just playing basketball that you don't need to be worried about talking to somebody else," Mullins said.
Added Foster: "You've got to do something to get some kind of sanity in the game."
Metro Conference supervisor of officials Dale Kelley says the league has had "two or three" taunting technicals this year, not counting the Kummer incident, and says emphasis of the rule has produced a "dramatic decrease" in such calls from last year.
\ HOW BLUE CAN YOU GET? Bad enough for Foster that his Hokies are 9-15. Now, not even the Metro coaches' conference call is hassle-free.
Foster was driving on Interstate 81 near Salem on Monday, talking to reporters on his car phone, when he pulled off the road to complete his 10-minute stint without cellular static. Seconds later, a state trooper tapped on Foster's window, got Foster off the phone and told him to move - no parking on the interstate unless it's an emergency.
"I don't guess that fit an emergency," Foster said.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB